This invention is related in general to sensing systems and more specifically to networks used to sense conditions or characteristics associated with a process or thing.
Sensing systems are employed in various demanding applications including alumina-processing plant instrumentation, wildfire detection and monitoring; and weather monitoring and forecasting. Such applications often demand versatile sensing systems that can readily provide valuable information to improve predictions, manufacturing techniques, and so on.
Versatile and efficient sensing systems are particularly important in aluminum oxide (alumina) processing applications, where extreme operating conditions involving high voltages and temperatures often preclude use of potentially unsafe, bulky, or cumbersome sensing systems. An exemplary alumina-processing plant includes plural aluminum-reduction cells, also called pots or Hall-Héroult cells. A Hall-Héroult cell includes an electrolyte containing alumina. An electrical current passes through the solution between a carbon anode and a carbon cathode, causing a chemical reaction between alumina and carbon, yielding carbon dioxide gas and aluminum.
Unfortunately, conventional sensor systems for measuring Hall-Héroult cell process characteristics, such as temperature, cell voltage, exhaust-gas pressure, and so on, often require wires that connect the sensors to one or more computers. Additional wires connect the sensors to power sources. The hardware required to implement such sensing systems in Hall-Héroult-cell applications may create safety concerns, interfere with existing hardware, require excessive maintenance, and consume excessive power.
Accordingly, Hall-Héroult-cells are often equipped with relatively few sensors due to such problems. Consequently, sensed data that could yield improvements in cell-energy efficiency is often unavailable.